MAPPS Celebrates 20th Anniversary 07.17.2002

Twentieth anniversary welcomes a special annual conference, a
new logo and a redesign of the MAPPS web site.

The Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors
(MAPPS) celebrates its 20th anniversary with a special annual conference, a
new logo and a redesign of its web site.

The new logo was designed by the graphics
department of Greenhorne & O'Mara of Greenbelt, Maryland (www.g-and-o.com), a
MAPPS member firm. The logo is intended to reflect the diversity of the
member firms in MAPPS, which reaches far beyond photogrammetry and includes
firms in all geospatial services and technology, including remote sensing,
GIS, surveying, cartography, hydrography, charting, aerial and satellite
imagery and other disciplines, as well as the global focus of MAPPS.

MAPPS has also launched a new design on its web site, www.mapps.org. The new
site provides ease of navigation, enhanced content and improved layout. It
was designed by PixelHead (www.pixelhead.net) of Elmira, New York, which has
designed sites for several members of Congress.

The MAPPS 20th Anniversary Annual Conference begins Friday, July 19 at the
Monterey Plaza Hotel in Monterey, California. More than 200 persons
representing over 80 firms will be in attendance. The conference includes
presentations on contracting opportunities and related issues by NIMA and
USGS; a session by George Lee of USGS on plans for upgrading the existing
aerial film camera calibration laboratory and development of a new digital
airborne sensor testing facility; a presentation on risk drivers affecting
professional liability of geospatial firms by Guy LeVan of Design
Professionals Insurance Companies; a class on communications preferences,
including Myers-Briggs Indicator testing by Susan Robinson of H&R Block; a
session on implementation of QBS laws for geospatial contracts at the Federal
and State level by MAPPS Executive Director John Palatiello; an oral history
of MAPPS featuring its founders and past presidents; and a session on
Technology, Teaming and Trends featuring Harry Voccola of NavTech, Kass Green
of Space Imaging, and Ron Rabin of Lockheed Martin Space Services. A 20th
Anniversary Black Tie Gala will be held at the world-renowned Monterey
Aquarium. The keynote speaker is Dr. Adrian Moore, Executive Director of the
Reason Public Policy Institute and head of its Privatization and Government
Reform group (www.rppi.org). The conference runs through July 23.

MAPPS was founded on July 12, 1982 in Chicago by fewer than 24 firms. Its
roots date back to 1951 with its predecessor organizations, the Association
of Professional Photogrammetrists, and the Legislative Council of
Photogrammetry, formed in 1962.

MAPPS now has nearly 170 member firms. Its members are among the leading
geospatial firms in the world. Every USGS CSC-2 (Cartographic Services
Contracts) prime contractor is a MAPPS member firm -- as are numerous
subcontractors in the program; every NOAA shoreline mapping prime contractor
is a MAPPS member firm; every NOAA hydrographic surveying prime contractor is
a MAPPS member firm; every prime contractor for geospatial services for the
US Army Corps of Engineers Technical Center for Expertise in Photogrammetry
is a MAPPS member firm; and the prime contractor and numerous subcontractors
in the Census MAF/TIGER program is a MAPPS member firm, and more than half
the prime contractors, and more than 50 subcontractors, in the NIMA Omnibus
geospatial contract production program are MAPPS member firms.